Christmas in the office

December 18, 2012

What’s Christmas like in your office now things are beginning to wind down? Has it changed much in recent years?

Glancing at our ‘to do’ lists, we’ve been reminiscing about Christmas in the early days of Extravision. Then, December could be a quiet time, giving us a few weeks to wind down, clear out our desks, get round to all those jobs we’d been meaning to do and enjoy the odd unrushed mince pie. Things have moved on.

Now, Christmas is one of our busiest times, with seasonal client campaigns and e-card projects keeping us at our keyboards right up until we close for the holiday. With most companies chasing year round orders and activity, we suspect we’re not the only firm that no longer sees any slack over the festive period.

Thinking about changes to Christmas in the workplace led us on to Secret Santa. Where did that come from? Wikipedia is not much help on Secret Santa origins, though it helpfully advises “In the UK, the anonymity of Secret Santa is often exploited to purchase gifts that are humorous. Often these breach the social norms of the work-place environment by mocking personality, tastes and lifestyles of the recipient.”

Then there’s the office Christmas party. The big ‘works do’ is not what it once was. In recent years, the media in December has been awash with stories of Scrooge bosses cutting the office Christmas party because they didn’t want to spend money and nervous managers saying no to celebrations because they were scared of being sued as a result of alcohol-related incidents. This year, it’s surprisingly quiet, but we suspect that’s more to do with the fact the media are bored with the topic than with any great resurgence in management merriment.

Of course, each workplace has its own routines and traditions, some mainstream, others perhaps rather more unusual. At Extravision, we still make the effort to get out of the office for Christmas and go for a weekend where the team can bond and relax away from the usual pressures of work.

Do you still have a lavish Christmas party or is it all a bit low key these days?